Stranger in a Strange Land

Best story I have ever listened to. Full of delightful and colorful characters. A thinking persons science fiction. I had to immediately find the original unedited script released by Heinlein's wife after his death and request it for Christmas. First time I actually finished a sci-fi book and wished it was true, but you have to get it to grokk it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I'm not a fan of science fiction but gave this book a try. I can't praise it enough. I don't think I would have enjoyed the written book as much. The narrator is wonderful and I will look for more read by him. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Actually, with a title like I gave this review, people will probably be MORE inclined to check out the book! Well, if that's your thing, go for it. If I had it to do over, I would still have "read" the book. It's worth getting under your belt, it's a classic, etc. A neat combo of Ayn Rand and 1984, both of which I love. Then about 1/2 through, we seem to enter the Playboy mansion of postmodernism. It's fun, that's for sure, but it makes it a little hard to take Heinlein's ideas seriously when he keeps stripping everyone (especially the lovely ladies) naked in the middle of his philosophical treatises. I noticed the previous reviewer's note about the deadpan voice -- I actually thought it was HILARIOUS, especially to hear him reading the female voices (certainly the voices of the nude and tatooed). A fun romp, perhaps not as life-changing for this generation as the last.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I found the context of this book to be very interesting. The text is very well constructed. The deadpan delivery of the reader was quite boring. I often found my mind wandering...

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book. The narrator is fine and does do some limited voice acting that helps you distinguish between different characters in a scene with ease. A previous review mentions somewhat dated values but that is to be expected considering the age of the book. The future imagined in this book is of course fiction but it is not unbelievable. I would recommend this book to everyone that enjoys a good science fiction book. Also if you have a player capable of handling mp3 CD's it is a lot easier to manage this on a single disk rather than the typical 8-15 CD's.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

If you like Heinlein, you will like this. I like Heinlein because he addresses sociological issues and societal morays. There is little science in this story.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read this book in high school back in the 1970s; I thought it was a great book then. My buddies and I used to go to the bottom of the pool to "grock" life and I believe it significantly impacted our view of women. But now reading it--well listening actually--at age 50, despite being an interesting story, the values it espouses have been really quite harmful to society. It really treats women as sex objects to be used at our whim—-not quite the view I hold to now with three teen-age daughters. Too bad we don’t have flying cars as the author predicted however!

1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

You wont be disapointed amazing story and narrating.

I've been reading and re-reading this boom for 40 years. It is only today that I grok a wrongness. In the chapter where Mike and Jill leave the carny life and stay in Las Vegas for a while, they discuss the vagaries of inter and intra personal relationships utilizing Duke's objectification of women as a focus. During this discussion Jill says "nine times out of ten if a girl gets raped it's partly her fault". The story is steeped in a patriarchal worldview and needs to be viewed in this way in order to see how far we've come, or not, in our sense of equality. Heinlein is a great storyteller and this book reveals the dominant ideology of the time and much more about his personal view and how it supports patriarchy, informing us, in many ways how misogyny found its way into government and thrived.

fantastic read! week worth my credit. And I want to point you a review. If you haven't read Gman's review of the book, it says much more eloquently and humorously that which I would like to say here. best part " you got to get it to groc it" if you haven't heard it yet you'll get a kick out of this in the late beginning of the book. the fun changes who develop growth throughout are what amazed me most about this book.